From the Left

The left generally thinks the French government should not have retreated, but also acknowledges the tough predicaments of an increasingly unequal economy and populist protests.

From the Right

The right thinks the protests are an indication that costly, top-down efforts to combat climate change are not feasible.

“Mr. Macron must find ways to address a central problem that Western democracies now face: the bitter disenchantment of those who feel left behind by rapid technological change and economic dislocation. While there’s no clear road map, retreating from needed reforms is not the solution.”

Washington Post

“The retreat is a dangerous gamble. In the view of the demonstrators, [Prime Minister] Philippe and his boss heard their anger only when they started torching cars on Avenue Kléber, not when it smoldered in distant villages. Social media is already buzzing with calls for more. Demands now include Mr. Macron’s resignation and dissolution of the Parliament...

“But when the government tried to open talks, there was no one to talk to. Some unofficial interlocutors appeared but were pulled back by threats from other yellow vests... The power of social media to quickly mobilize mass anger without any mechanism for dialogue or restraint is a danger to which a liberal democracy cannot succumb.”

New York Times

“What began as an automobile-focused, cost-of-living protest undertaken by a coalition of the white, rural working-class and petite bourgeoisie has evolved into a Hydra-headed autumn of discontent, with many objectives, no leaders, and a base that encompasses a cross-section of French life from engineers to paramedics to Parisian high school students...

“The beauty of the movement, for Macron’s political opponents, is that it can be whatever they want to say it is... Both Mélenchon and Le Pen are trying to glom a long-term objective—the establishment of a voting system that would make it easier for extremist parties like theirs to gain seats in Parliament—onto the gilets-jaunes agenda...

“This is not a revolt, monsieur le président. It’s the French equivalent to Brexit – a raging cry for help from the disenfranchised. Unlike the British ruling elite, it would be wise, after saying that you heard them, to act on what they say.”

The Guardian

From the Right

The right thinks the protests are an indication that costly, top-down efforts to combat climate change are not feasible.

“[Macron] is fiddling with carbon reduction targets while Paris burns... Instead of uniting the country behind an absolutely necessary reform of its ossified institutions and employment-hostile labor laws and taxation policies, instead of inspiring the country with the grand project of national renewal, he has united the country against himself.”

“It didn’t matter to [Macron] that French emissions already are very low on a per capita basis and further cuts to transport emissions would be extremely difficult to achieve. But this matters a great deal to lower-income rural voters whose use of cars for daily life and business was about to become much more expensive...

“The French people are balking because the government doesn't appear to care how much disruption there will be in the lives of ordinary people. Whether French voters believe in man-made climate change is not the issue. This is an issue that hits at the wallets of the French lower and middle classes and, along with the rising cost of living, is squeezing the average Frenchman, lowering their standard of living.”

American Thinker

“What the rioters seem to be saying is this: We cannot see the benefits you are promising to future generations from cutting carbon emissions. And we cannot survive the taxes you are imposing on us in the here and now... Western elites may be reaching the limits of their political capacity to impose major sacrifices upon their constituents, who are turning to populists of the left and right to dethrone those elites.”

The American Conservative

“At the same time this was going on, delegates are meeting in Poland—a nation where more than 85 percent of electricity is generated in coal-fired power plants—so that signees of the Paris Agreement could iron out how they would reach their own emissions-reducing pledges. The United States, which exited the deal Obama entered without congressional approval, has already matched the carbon emission reductions of the European Union since 2005... We didn’t even have to riot.”